Hello, I’m using the HTTP Request node in n8n to trigger an Apify Task using the run-sync-get-dataset-items endpoint. The call works fine as long as the Apify Actor finishes within 5 minutes. However, when I scrape larger datasets that take more than 5 minutes, the Apify Actor still completes successfully in the Apify platform, but the connection from n8n times out and the workflow fails.
The problem is that in this case I do not receive any response from the HTTP Request node. That means I don’t get the runId or datasetId, so I can’t check the status of the run or fetch the data afterwards. Using the normal POST /run endpoint doesn’t work either, since it returns 404 for tasks and only works with actors directly. (I only have the actor saved as tasks)
What I’m trying to achieve is a more reliable setup where I can trigger the Apify task from n8n, immediately capture the runId, and then have a loop or a polling mechanism that checks if the run has completed, and once it’s done, fetches the dataset items. The issue is that I can’t access the runId at all if the sync call fails due to timeout.
Is there any strategy in n8n to handle long-running external API calls like this more reliably? For example, is it possible to increase the timeout for HTTP Request nodes beyond the default? Or is there another way to call Apify tasks so that I can catch the runId immediately and continue from there?
Information on your n8n setup
- **n8n version: self hosted
- Failed Notification:
Workflow:
